title: Nasalance scores of children with repaired cleft palate who exhibit normal velopharyngeal closure during aerodynamic testing.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine if children with repaired cleft palate and normal velopharyngeal (VP) closure as determined by aerodynamic testing exhibit greater acoustic nasalance than control children without cleft palate.
  
  
  METHODS
  Pressure-flow procedures were used to identify 2 groups of children based on VP closure during the production of /p/ in the word hamper: (a) children with repaired cleft palate and normal VP closure ( n = 23) and (b) controls without cleft palate and with normal VP closure ( n = 16). Acoustic nasalance scores were obtained for all children during the production of syllables with high-pressure consonants and sentences with low-pressure consonants (i.e., low-pressure sentences).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Nasalance scores were generally higher for children with repaired cleft palate and normal VP function as compared to controls; however, a significant difference occurred only for low-pressure sentences ( p = .005).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results partially support a pressure-sensitive theory of VP function in that some children with repaired cleft palate may achieve VP closure during the production of high-pressure consonants but fail to do so during the production of vowels and low-pressure consonants. Clinical implications are discussed.
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA. david_zajac@dentistry.unc.edu
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Zajac
mesh_terms: D000388:Air; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002972:Cleft Palate / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009296:Nasal Cavity / Q000502:physiology; D010614:Pharynx / Q000502:physiology*; D010700:Phonetics; D011184:Postoperative Period; D011312:Pressure; D012016:Reference Values; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D014681:Velopharyngeal Insufficiency / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014831:Voice / Q000502:physiology
keywords: cleft palate; nasalance; pressure-sensitive theory; velopharyngeal function